Waggoner: Are we talking trash with junk bonds?

4:00 PM,
Sep. 13, 2013

Written by

John Waggoner
USA Today

If you yell "Bernanke!" when you hit your thumb with a hammer, you're probably a saver who's trying to get some income from your investments.

The Federal Reserve has been keeping short-term interest rates near zero for the past five years in a bid to revive the economy. Low rates are swell for lenders. For savers? Not so much. To get higher returns, you have to accept higher risk - which, for many investors, has meant high-yielding, low-quality, high-risk junk bonds.

How have those investors done? Quite well, actually. Even after a long period of good return from junk bonds, they can still be an ...